The Guide to Exposition Park in Downtown LA

Home to Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Football Club and National Women’s Soccer League’s Angel City FC, the 22,000-seat BMO Stadium (formerly Banc of California Stadium) opened in April 2018 and is the first open-air stadium built in LA since Dodger Stadium in 1962. Located on the site of the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, the state-of-the-art stadium also hosts concerts, special events and festivals throughout the year.

Located at the eastern end of Exposition Park, the California African American Museum (CAAM) exists to research, collect, preserve and interpret the history, art and culture of African Americans. Opened during the 1984 Summer Olympics, the museum conserves more than 3,500 objects of art, historical artifacts and memorabilia.

CAAM also maintains a Research Library with a non-circulating collection of more than 6,000 books, periodicals, records and ephemera. The collection is available for use by the public, from students and teachers to researchers, curators, historians, and rare book enthusiasts.

The West Coast’s largest hands-on science center, the California Science Center spans more than 400,000 square feet and includes several permanent exhibits: Fire! Science & Safety, Life! Beginnings, Ecosystems, Air & Space, and the Roy A. Anderson Blackbird Exhibit & Garden. The Space Shuttle Endeavour is one of four orbiters to go on permanent display after the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program. The California Science Center is in the process of lifting NASA’s historic space shuttle Endeavour into launch position as part of the groundbreaking new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center exhibit.

The museum also features a seven-story IMAX theatre with next-generation, 12-channel surround sound. Movies like Under the Sea and Journey to Space are shown in 3D on a laser projection system for an unforgettable immersive experience. IMAX movies and special exhibits require separate tickets for admission.

Spanning seven acres, the Exposition Park Rose Garden features more than 20,000 rose bushes representing over 200 varieties. In 1936, four large marble statues by Danish sculptor Thyra Boldsen were installed on pedestals at the four corners of the garden. The statues were titled "Nymph Finding Pipes of Pan," "The Blessing,” "The Start" and "Terpsichore" (or "Melody of Life"). Its gazebos, statues and central fountain make the sunken garden a popular picnic, wedding and photography destination. The Exposition Park Rose Garden was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Opened in June 1923, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is the largest football stadium in the Pac-12 conference and is the home field of the USC Trojans. The Coliseum is the first stadium in history to host the Summer Olympics twice (1932 and 1984) and will host the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad in 2028.

The stadium has hosted decades of historic events, including the 1959 World Series (the Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 4-2), Super Bowl I (1967), Super Bowl VII (the 1973 Miami Dolphins perfect season), Wattstax music festival, Evel Knievel’s 50-car jump, and concerts by some of the biggest names in music. On March 29, 2008, the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox set a Guinness World Record for the largest attendance ever at a baseball game with a crowd of 115,300.

Notable figures include John F. Kennedy, who gave his "New Frontier" acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1960; Billy Graham’s 1963 crusade (the 134,254 attendance is an all-time Coliseum record), the first-ever Papal Mass by Pope John Paul II in 1987; and Nelson Mandela’s triumphant return to the U.S. in 1990.

The Coliseum was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) houses one of the world’s most extensive and valuable collections of natural and cultural history - more than 35 million objects, some as old as 4.5 billion years. The extraordinary collection includes a 63-foot whale skeleton at the entrance; Becoming Los Angeles, a 14,000 square-foot exhibition that explores the city's growth over five centuries; Dinosaur Hall, featuring the world's only Tyrannosaurus rex growth series; and Nature Gardens, a 3.5-acre urban wilderness.

NHM also hosts First Fridays, a popular after hours series with live music, DJs, topical discussions, signature cocktails and more.

As the first museum to focus exclusively on storytelling through images, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art believes that visual storytelling can connect us and help shape a more just society. With a growing collection that encompasses artworks from across cultures, places, times, and mediums, including paintings, sculptures, murals, photography, comic art, book and magazine illustrations, and the arts of filmmaking, the Lucas Museum will explore narrative art’s potential to prompt questions, invite opinions, inspire community, and move people to think about the impact of images on our world.

Co-founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson and led by director and CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont, the Lucas Museum was designed by renowned architect Ma Yansong of MAD Architects with Stantec as executive architect and will open in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park in 2025. An 11-acre campus with extensive new green space designed by Studio-MLA will embrace the museum’s 300,000-square-foot building, which will feature expansive galleries, two state-of-the-art theaters, and dedicated spaces for learning and engagement, dining, retail, and events.

Built as a private/public partnership on the site of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics Swim Stadium, EXPO Center is the largest recreational facility in L.A. County and welcomes families from throughout its diverse communities.

One of LA's best aquatic centers, the LA84 Foundation/John C. Argue Swim Stadium is open to the public year-round and features a 50-meter competition pool and adjacent recreation pool for kids. EXPO Center also includes the Roy A. Anderson Recreation Center, Ahmanson Senior Center, Ralph M. Parsons Preschool, Soboroff Sports Field, and W.M. Keck Amphitheatre.